Starting mid-June, the traveling oral history project, “A Secret History of American River People,” will journey by handmade shantyboat through Louisiana’s waterways. Artist Wes Modes and crew will navigate Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya Basin, interviewing Cajun and Creole residents and collecting personal stories of life on the bayou. The project documents voices often left out of the official record — stories of resilience, displacement, environmental change and cultural survival.

Since 2014, the shantyboat has traveled more than 2,600 miles, gathering river histories for a public archive and hosting pop-up exhibitions along the journey. For more information, visit peoplesriverhistory.org .

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